Did you ever get struck by lightning?

[space-time]

Or were near an object that was struck by lightning?

[OWC Jamie]

Twice. Both times too close for comfort. Once while driving, power transformer got blown up right in front of me - flash blinded me, literally could not see at 55mph, braked, felt the edge of the road, and managed to not go in the ditch. Second time while packing the car for vacation, I was in the garage and lightning struck the pine tree in the back yard. I was just coming out of the garage and the shockwave hit me before the sound really - it split the tree, blew the bark off of it for 50'+ on one side (it was amazing how little the pieces were too). And unbeknownst to me, it melted the phone lines underground - shorting them out. The cops were at our house a couple times while we were gone because our phone kept calling 911.

[space-time]

OWC Jamie wrote:
... The cops were at our house a couple times while we were gone because our phone kept calling 911.

same happened to me about a year ago (July 4th) when phone was dead but it clicked 911 along with other phone numbers with lots of 1s and 2s. Dead phone was just verizon incompetence, not act of God.

[freeradical]

Yeah, once. It happened when I was stationed at Osan Air Base Korea. I was working on a WSC-3 satellite radio when lightning struck a tree that was probably less than 100 feet away. There was the flash of lightning, and an instantaneous sound of thunder. My hands were in the radio and I just about wet my pants. After I got over my shock, I went outside with my buddies to investigate the tree that had just exploded. Smart huh...

[Dennis S]

I was leaning against a metal concession stand with 2 friends at a bluegrass festival when a lightning storm came up. I stepped forward and was going to turn around and tell them they'd better not lean on the metal when they both got struck. One of them grabbed his butt and yelped and the other one collapsed, but got up before anyone called an ambulance. Someone there said that if just one of us had been touching the metal he would probably have been killed.

[mstudio]

Years ago we were on the causeway near Tampa Florida during a storm. It felt like we were being chased by the storm, lightening was striking all around us. Trees were exploding to the left and right, but the most incredible thing was the fireball in the Bay as the lightening hit the water. We were totally freaking out hoping that the rubber tires of our VW bus would ground us if we were struck. I have never seen anything Ike that again.

[Black]

I don't know. Maybe. Would I remember it?

[slbett]

66 times in the the the the head. Man that's gotta hurt.

[davec]

When I was 12 years old a large elm tree, 25 feet from the back door of my grandparent's lakeside cabin, got hit by lightning. The air "crackled" just prior to the strike. It blew out a 25 foot piece of the tree. Scary stuff.

Dave

[blooz]

Yeah, but then she divorced me.